Page 43 of Atlas Uncharted

Chapter 30

Atlas

I could see it in her eyes—she was right there on the edge. Teetering. I just had to tip her. I needed to reminded her, how good I could make her feel.

I moved beside her, close enough to feel her breath catch. Her eyes met mine. The defiance was there like always, but there was something else. Something soft. Something open. She was losing control, and she knew it.

I took her wrist and tugged her into my lap. She didn’t resist. Not really. Her body fell into mine. If she knew how many nights I’d pictured her just like this, she’d laugh in my face.

My hand slid into her robe. She shivered. Her thighs shifted.

“Baby, Kairi,” I murmured at her ear, and her pulse jumped beneath my lips. I guided her hand to her chest, pressed it flat against her heart.

“You feel that? How your heart sped up?” I asked. “You want this. You want my babies. My love. Your stories told me.”

I traced my hand down her body, slid my fingers between her legs. Applied just enough pressure to her panty covered pussy to make her body jolt. Her breath stuttered. Head dropped to my shoulder. Lips parted like she might say something but didn’t.

I could’ve laid her out, claimed what was already mine, fucked the breath from her throat. She would’ve let me. Might have begged for it.

I didn’t, though. Even though my dick was throbbing and every fiber of my being wanted to.

Because I needed her to feel what I felt. Not just the want—but the absence of the person you crave.

So I pulled back. I wanted her to sit in the quiet of rejection.

I watched her eyes fly open—confused, needy, wrecked. I stood with her in my arms, kissed her long enough to make her knees weak, then set her down gently on the sofa.

“What are you doing?” she asked, voice thick, wrecked.

“Next time you want to use your body as a weapon, don’t let it beg for me in the middle of the war. Goodnight, Kairi.”

I walked out before she could recover. I’d be back. I had no intention of letting her go back to pretending she didn’t want me.

I’d warned her. I’d burn it all down. Rebuild us in my image if I had to. This was just the start.

Chapter 30.5

Kairi

I woke up to silence. Real silence. No babbling, no crying, no alarm blaring in my ear. That hadn’t happened—hadn’t happened since I had Dion. He was always up before me, making noise, calling out, doing something. But not today.

I sat up fast. I looked toward the nightstand—my phone wasn’t there. I knew I’d left it there. I yanked the covers back, searching through the sheets, tossing pillows aside. Nothing.

It took a minute for my brain to catch up. Dion was with my father. I sighed. But where was my phone?

Then I smelled it—eggs, bacon. My heart kicked up.

I jumped out of bed, threw on the first clothes I saw, and bolted out of the room. Halfway down the hall, I nearly tripped over my own feet.

At the top of the stairs, I froze. Luggage. Big, heavy bags stacked in the living room—bags that didn’t belong to me.

And just like that, it all came back. Atlas. His threats. His so-called plan. The way he’d looked me in the eye and said he was moving in.

Apparently, he meant it.

My stomach dropped as I ran downstairs. I found Atlas at the stove, cooking like he belonged there, flipping pancakes so casually it made my blood boil. Dion was zooming around the kitchen on a little toddler car I hadn’t bought, giggling like he didn’t have a care in the world. He didn’t even stop to look at me for more than two seconds. It was all so domestic, it took some of my anger away.

Atlas looked back, his eyes meeting mine, a smug smile spreading across his face—the kind that made me want to throw something.

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